Ep 794: Can Automation Make Hiring More Human?

When organizations hire thousands of frontline workers, delivering a personal candidate experience becomes almost impossible. Recruiters spend all of their time answering calls, responding to messages, and running through the same screening questions over and over. There is little time left for the conversations that actually matter. Meanwhile, candidates want speed, flexibility, and a process that respects their time, including outside business hours. So how can AI solve this? My guests this week are Jeroen Klerkx, People Operations Leader at Picnic, and Bill Fischer, CTO at VONQ. In our conversation, recorded live at HR Tech Europe, they share what happened when Picnic gave candidates the choice of a human or AI screening call, the surprising feedback they received, and how they built 10 years of recruiting knowledge into an AI agent that frees up time for their recruiters to have more valuable conversations. In the interview, we discuss: Picnic’s unique approach to candidate experience The current market challenges Building an AI recruiter Closely monitoring candidate sentiment and responding to their feedback. Overcoming the considerable technical challenges How recruiters responded to automation and how their role is developing Managing candidate expectations around AI What does the future look like for AI in TA Follow this podcast on Apple Podcasts. Follow this podcast on Spotify.

You can listen to Ep 794: Can Automation Make Hiring More Human? online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Ep 794: Can Automation Make Hiring More Human? is an episode from The Recruiting Future Podcast - Innovation in HR and Recruitment by Matt Alder.

This episode is 19:29 long.

This episode was published on May 13, 2026.

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